FANTASY

I suggest that whatever they have done, the Beastie Boys always mean it, they’ve never been contrived. The statement sinks. “I beg to differ there,” says Adam Yauch. “Yes we have,” he says with a nod and a grin.[1]
Lisa Anthony

This quote, from an interview for Juice magazine, highlights a major tension in the perception of rap as “authentic”. Rap lyrics present a credible local community, but they also (in the case of the Beastie Boys, self-consciously) present a contrived fantasy — an overstated, larger than life image of the rapper. Thus alongside conventions about lyrics which require descriptions of specific places and people, there are conventions which involve making exaggerated claims about the rapper’s abilities or experiences. Speaking about the group The Ghetto Boys, Rubin stated that “the images in their lyrics, whether it’s sleeping with seven women or cutting someone up with a chainsaw, are exaggerations. It’s not any more real than a horror movie. The guys are just having fun.”[2] Rubin’s alignment of exaggeration with “fun” is simplistic ¾ what is it about these kinds of claims that is fun? In fact, there is a fairly complex relationship between realism and fantasy in rap.

The focus of this chapter is the group of conventions about fantasy in the rap genre. Adherence to these conventions, as explored in Chapter One, defines “authenticity” for the rap subculture. The apparent tension between fantasy and “authenticity” is (at least partly) resolved by remembering that we are discussing constructed, and not actual, “authenticity.” The more pertinent tension is between those conventions of “authenticity” which require realism, and those which require non-realism. This chapter begins by exploring this issue. In particular, I look at one of the roles played by fantasies in society ¾ as manifestations of particular values held by a subculture.

I then closely examine the fantasy constructed by the Beastie Boys, isolating three aspects which correspond to genre conventions: technical skill, sexual prowess, and the more amorphous element of “attitude”. In the case of technical skill, the Beastie Boys adhere closely to the rap conventions of boasting about, and displaying, verbal ability. In the case of the other two elements, there is more distance between the work of the Beastie Boys and the rap conventions which define “authentic” fantasies. While the Beastie Boys may, like other rappers, be misogynistic, the playful tone of their misogyny and their later recantations could be seen to make them less “authentic.” My discussion of the Beastie Boys’ “attitude” shows them to be cheeky and adolescent, and there are strong arguments that “authentic” rappers need to display more aggressive political views.

The tension between fantasy and realism

Rappers create fantasies both in their texts and in the way they are marketed. Visual images are used powerfully to construct fantasies: some of these can be seen in Appendix 2, and they are discussed at various points in this chapter. My primary focus, however, is on the use of lyrics to create a fantasy about the rapper’s persona.

In rap, there are a number of raps which are obviously fictional. For example, the Beastie Boys’ “High Plains Drifter” tells the story of an outlaw ¾ an independent, powerful rebel figure who steals cars, breaks out of jail and plows over mail boxes. The exaggerated, tough tone of the rap is evident from the opening lines:

            They can’t touch me never gonna find me
            They’re never gonna know that I’m the High Plains Drifter
            Pulled over to the river to take a rest
            Pulled out a pair of pliers and pulled the bullet out of my chest.[3]

There is an obvious element of parody or self-mocking in the Wild West glamour of these lyrics, yet they still stand as a constructed and presumably attractive fantasy for listeners.

Explicit fictions such as “High Plains Drifter”, however, are undergirded by a more comprehensive development of fantasy in the work of rappers. Rap lyrics continuously present pseudo-autobiographical images of the rapper which are non-realistic. Rappers adopt street names which separate their rapping persona from their everyday existence, and then attach wild boasts to these street names: examples for the Beastie Boys include “You know it’s Ad-Rock that’s blowing your mind”[4] and “Well they call me Mike D with the mad man style.”[5] Many rappers acknowledge the fantasy element of their raps. Adam Yauch, frrm the Beastie Boys, has said:

It’s like a lot of the Licensed to Ill lyrics and stuff like that, it’s a kind of fantasy and half pretending. I mean, there’s all this stuff about us smoking dust and things like that. I ain’t never smoked dust. It just seemed like it was fun to say that.[6]

The nature of rappers’ boasts is explored more fully later in the chapter.

There is an obvious tension between the fantasies of rap and the presentation of realistic, concrete detail as explored in Chapter Two. This tension cannot be fully resolved. The rapper’s desire to appear as an “authentic” participant in rap’s imagined community is at odds with the desire to be a star ¾ a figure who transcends the everyday and thus becomes a focus for the escapist dreams of the listeners. Both aspects of the rapper’s persona contribute to his or her commercial success.

Recognizing this contradiction, it is nonetheless possible to see connections between the fantastical and realistic aspects of rap by analysing the role of fantasies in a subculture. Fantasies can be seen as the projection of the values and attitudes of a community. The lived experiences of a community dictate what is seen as important, admirable or desirable in a hero. Rap fantasies make desirable experiences and attributes available to the members of the rap subculture. [7]

This use of fantasy figures to display a person or community’s values is seen in other aspects of society. Walt Whitman, for example, created a fantastic self-image which appealed to those seeking an earthy, robust American literary voice. Whitman’s image was a very deliberately constructed fantasy: while admitting privately that “The actual W.W. is a very plain personage,”[8] Whitman's poetry presents an entirely different conception of self. In “Song of Myself” he introduces himself as “Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son/Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding.”[9] Similarly, in “Starting from Paumanok” he writes:

No dainty dolce affettuoso I,
Bearded, sun-burnt, gray-neck’d, forbidding, I have arrived,
To be wrestled with as I pass for the solid prizes of the universe,
For such I afford whoever can persevere to win them.[10]

As well as creating a larger-than-life self-image in his writing, Whitman also used a visual image to support his created identity. Whitman's original edition of Leaves of Grass included a photo of himself in farming clothes, radiating working-class strength — a visual image as much at odds with the reality of his lifestyle as his poetry was.

There are many other fantasy figures in society, and these are used by members of the public as a way of articulating aspects of their own identity. A contemporary Australian pop song invites listeners to align themselves with rough “yoboes” or pretentious “wankers” by choosing their hero: “So who is your favourite genius, James Hird or James Joyce?”[11] James Hird is an AFL player, James Joyce is an author, and they act as heroes for different sections of the population. Thus a hero can represent a subculture to the mainstream, by embodying the attributes valued by that subculture.

Fantasy, then, is connected to the “realism” of the rap community because it manifests attitudes of that community, providing exaggerated images which members of the subculture can admire or reject as ways of negotiating their identity. In the rap subculture, the nature of the fantasies projected by rappers is heavily governed by conventions ¾ some fantasies are more “authentic” than others. The remainder of this chapter focuses on the content of these conventions, and the extent to which the Beastie Boys participate in them.

What does the rap fantasy involve?

I propose to explore three main conventions of “authenticity” relating to fantasy. These conventions are all touched upon in the Beastie Boys’ rap, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn.”[12] First, the Beastie Boys are presented as skilled rappers: “Itchy trigger finger but a stable turntable/ I do what I do best because I'm illing and able.” Second, the Beastie Boys are depicted as sexually attractive and surrounded by women: they have “girls on the jock,” watch “all the girlies shaking,” and drink ale with “all the fly women.” Finally (and embracing the other elements), there is a rebellious “attitude” in the rap which celebrates leisure and rejects the mainstream work ethic. As they put it: “While you're at the job working nine to five/The Beastie Boys at the Garden - cold kickin' it live.” Their holiday image is neatly summarised early in the rap:

My job ain’t a job – it’s a damn good time
City to city – I’m running my rhymes
On location – touring around the nation
Beastie Boys always on vacation.

These three elements of fantasy are explored in more detail in the following sections.

Technical Skill

At first, it may seem surprising that verbal skill is an attractive fantasy image. The origins of rap, however, reveal that verbal jousting was a representation, and at times a sublimation, of aggression in urban youth culture. As with Jamaican sound systems, rappers would engage in verbal “battles,” and the most skilled rhymer would gain respect from the street culture. Technical skill in the rap subculture, then, is a marker of power and a way of establishing respect. It can be seen as the source and most important aspect of a rapper’s created identity. As Shusterman explains:

while the rapper's vaunting self-praise often highlights his sexual desirability, commercial success, and property assets, these signs of status are all presented as secondary to and derivative from his verbal power.[13]

In the raps of the Beastie Boys (and indeed in almost all rappers’ work) the need to prove oneself as a skilled rhymer manifests itself in two ways. First, and most obviously, they continually boast about their abilities. On Hello Nasty alone, they make claims like the following:

And when I grab the mic you scream “ooh God damn!”
The crème de la crème is who I am[14]

They also boast about having a “golden voice”[15] and “the ill technique”[16]. They're the “rhythm ace”[17] and they “rock the mic so viciously”[18]. The use of the word “vicious” is evidence of the link drawn in raps between skill and physical power, based on rap’s origins. Rhyming is portrayed as a source of the rapper's strength: “cause writin rhymes to me is like Popeye to spinach.”[19]. The power that comes from rapping is aligned with physicality and violence. In “Professor Booty”[20], the Beastie Boys rap:

I’ll pull the rug out under your ass as I talk on
I’ll take you out like a sniper on a roof.

The act of talking, in this fantasy scenario, achieves the same results as using a gun or enacting other violent acts ¾ thus technical skill is presented as part of the rapper’s powerful image.

As part of general claims of skill, rappers will often make the more particular claim that they improvise their raps ¾ despite the inherent difficulty of passing off a recorded rap as spontaneous. The Beastie Boys claim that “words are flowing out just like the Grand Canyon,”[21] that they “can groove with the beat when I let go,”[22] and that they “grab a hold of a mic and let the words glide.”[23] Claiming spontaneity can establish a number of attributes: lack of artifice, lawlessness, and even supernatural influence. Further, of course, rapping spontaneously is rapping skillfully: ““Cause I can flip a rhyme off the tip of my tongue/Switching up the rhythm like the rhyme’s a piece of chewing gum.”[24]

The second way the rapper’s identity as rhyming legend is constructed is through displays of technical ability. Exploring these displays involves a discussion of form rather than content in rap lyrics.. There are general conventions about technique in rap, such as the use of rhyme and trochaic tetrameter. The basic rap pattern of four heavily accented syllables in a line, and the use of (near) rhyme at line end and within lines, can be seen in “So What’cha Want”:

x / x x / x x / x x /

It’s wack when you’re jacked in the back of a ride

x x / x x / x x / x x /

With your know with your flow when you’re out getting by

These basic techniques, however, can be manipulated to demonstrate superior skill. A rapper has the “flow” when he or she raps several lines with the same line end rhyme: the Beastie Boys demonstrate this in “Girls”, which has fifteen lines ending with the sound “ay”, and in “Intergalactic”, where the three verses, each of sixteen lines, end with the sounds “ile”, “eem” or “op.”[25] Innovative use of speed and rhythm, such as the dramatic rhythmic change halfway through “Sounds of Science,”[26] also establishes the rapper’s skill. In a gratuitous display of rapping ability, “Dropping Names”[27] begins with the Beastie Boys repeating the line “He thrusts his fists against the post and still insists he sees a ghost.” This tongue twister establishes their verbal dexterity, and thus enhances the perception that the Beastie Boys are skilled rappers.

Thus technical skill can be seen as an element of the rap fantasy as defined by genre conventions. Verbal ability is a source of respect for the rapper, since rap has its origins in street-based competition. The vast majority of rappers, including the Beastie Boys, boast about their ability and give displays of rhythm and rhyme which emphasise their skill. In this way, the Beastie Boys satisfy one of rap’s conventions of “authenticity.”

Sexual Attractiveness and Dominance

The second convention of “authenticity” related to rappers’ fantasies is the projection of the rapper as sexually successful. In its more innocuous form, this sexual success involves claims about how attractive the rapper is, and how many attractive partners they have slept with. In many cases, however, the conventions about sexuality in rap extend to misogyny and homophobia, as rappers assert their sexual dominance. My analysis of the Beastie Boys shows that they follow the conventions relating to the portrayal of the rapper as sexually attractive. Their presentation of sexual dominance, however, is more mixed. While many of their raps express negative attitudes towards women, this is done in a self-deprecating, humorous way which may soften the misogyny of these raps. Further, their later raps show a new respect for women. While these aspects may be seen as improvements in mainstream society, they may also mean that the Beastie Boys are seen as “inauthentic” because they don’t follow rap conventions about the presentation of women.

It should be noted that my discussion is confined to male rappers, who make up the vast majority of rap artists. There are, however, women rappers, and some of these (such as Lauryn Hill, M.C. Lyte and Roxanne Shante) have challenged the conventional portrayals of women in rap.

The Beastie Boys frequenty make the claim that they are sexually desirable. As they put it:

Got rhymes that are rough and rhymes that are slick
I’m not surprised you’re on my dick[28]

In other raps, the Beastie Boys have “girlies on the tippy cause my homie is famous”[29] and claim that “ladies flock like bees to a hive.”[30] Whole songs, such as “Girls”[31] and “Hey Ladies” are devoted to the theme of the Beastie Boys’ sexual attractiveness.

A rapper’s image of sexual attractiveness can, in many cases, lead to lyrics which negatively portray women. Irving, in fact, suggests that white males find a point of entry into rap music through its misogyny: “an equivalence is built between white males and black males through the denigration of ‘woman’, who is set up as both other and contemptible.”[32] Examples of misogyny in rap are easily found. Kool Moe Dee says that it's “time to make sure that the girlie stay poor/String ‘em out, so they will always want more.”[33] The group N.W.A. features a number of horrifically sexist raps, including “One Less Bitch”, a rap about killing prostitutes. Their rap “Straight Outta Compton” includes the lines: “So if you're at a show in the front row/I'm a call you a bitch or dirty-ass ho” and “So what about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her!/You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain't a sucker!”[34] The group also speaks of violence against women in “Findum Fuckum and Flee”, rapping that “if a bitch tries to diss me what the fuck I lick her I smack the bitch up.”

In their early years, the Beastie Boys certainly participated in the rap community's misogynistic attitudes. In “The New Style,” they say that “we rag-tag girlies back at the hotel/And then we all switch places when I ring the bell.[35]“ Violence to women is also present, with a reference to “doing it” with a “whiffleball bat.”[36] The concerts of the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill tour had sexist elements such as dancing women in cages and a 25-foot hydraulic penis, which was covered in cream for female fans to lick.[37]

The tone of the Beastie Boys' sexism, though, is slightly different to that of other rappers. The injection of humour and self-deprecation into their raps possibly makes them easier to hear — even if, from a feminist perspective, they are equally oppressive of women. The rap “Girls”[38] is a classic example of the Beastie Boys' adolescent views of women. Reading the lyrics, they seem extremely offensive:

Girls – to do the dishes
Girls – to clean up my room
Girls – to do the laundry
Girls – and in the bathroom
Girls – that’s all I really want is girls
Two at a time – I want girls

The aural experience of the rap, however, adds important interpretive elements. The rapping is done by M.C.A. in a sing-song, child-like voice which evokes the playground. The musical backing includes a synthesized, tinkly melody which is looped, simple snare drums, and the other two Beasties singing “bom bom bom.” The rap sounds like a light-hearted spoof of a pop song — Rolling Stone magazine describes it as “irresistably delinquent doowop.”[39]

The visual images of the Beastie Boys also support this more light-hearted approach towards sexuality. The clip for “She’s On It,”[40] for example, features girls in skimpy bikinis, but also portrays the Beastie Boys as goofy, geeky teenagers. This provides a point of entry into the music for goofy, geeky listeners ¾ but also, to a large extent, removes the threatening element of the band’s misogyny. Thus the Beastie Boys’ attitudes towards women could be perceived as deviating from the conventions of misogyny in the rap subculture.

This deviation is even more noticeable in the band’s alter albums. Here, the Beastie Boys articulate positive attitudes to women. “Sure Shot”[41] includes the lines:

            I want to say a little something that's long overdue
            The disrespect to women has got to be through
            To all the wives and the mothers and the sisters and the friends
            I want to offer my love and respect to the end.

By Hello Nasty, the Beastie Boys’ pro-women attitudes are explicit. On “I Don’t Know”, they rap:

What makes you feel
And why you gotta be
Like you got the right
To look her up and down.[42]

To be fair, it should be observed that some elements of the Beastie Boys' early work also suggest respect for women. “What Comes Around”[43] includes the lines:

With two black eyes your girl ain't that pretty
Why you wanna beat that brat with a bat
Why you wanna beat your girl like that

While the language in this quotes is still tough ¾ particularly the use of the word ‘brat’ ¾ this rap counters misogynist attitudes to at least a degree. Recently, the Beastie Boys have also spoken in the media about sexism. While accepting an MTV Music Video Award, Ad-Rock spoke about the safety of female fans at concerts.[44] In another incident, the Beastie Boys refused to share a stage with the band The Prodigy unless The Prodigy agreed not to perform their hit, “Smack my bitch up.” This generated considerable controversy and claims of hypocrisy, and is an example of the tension between the current and early images of the Beastie Boys.

There has been a similar ideological shift in the Beastie Boys’ attitudes towards homosexuals. Many raps are homophobic, and the Beastie Boys participated in these attitudes in their early years. For example, one of the mooted titles for the Beastie Boys' debut album was Don't Be a Faggot.[45] In 1999, however, Ad-Rock sent this letter to “Time Out New York”:

I would like to take this opportunity to formally apologize to the entire gay and lesbian community for the shitty and ignorant things we said on our first record, Licensed to Ill. There are no excuses. But time has healed our stupidity.[46]

These changes of attitude in the Beastie Boys potentially mean that they are “inauthentic,” since they do not follow the rap conventions about the assertion of sexual dominance. There is an argument, though, that these conventions themselves may be changing. A number of rap groups espouse more tolerant attitudes: the group A Tribe Called Quest, for example, have a rap called “The Infamous Date Rape”[47] which counsels respect for women's right to refuse sex. The majority of rap produced today, however, focuses on the sexual attractiveness and dominance of the male rapper, and to the extent that the Beastie Boys buck this trend, they are distancing themselves from the conventions defining “authentic” fantasies for the rap subculture.

Attitude.

The most amorphous, and yet perhaps most significant, element of the rap fantasy is “attitude”. An “attitude” is like an aesthetic, a tone which pervades and supports more specific content in rap lyrics. In the rap subculture, there is a convention which dictates that rappers should present a rebellious “attitude”. There is a potential tension between obedience to convention and rebellion against mainstream culture. Rebellion, however, can take a number of forms. In this section I examine the adolescent cheekiness of the Beastie Boys’ rebellious “attitude”, and contrast it with the more aggressive, political rebellious fantasies of other rappers. The question underlying this comparison is whether or not the rap conventions of “authenticity” demand political engagement as well as general rebellion in the presentation of a rapper’s “attitude.”

Ashurst-Watson sums up the Beastie Boys’ “attitude” when she describes their work was “pretty much the idiotic, rebellious, middle-class ‘I don’t like my parents’ kind of rap.”[48] Particularly in their early years, the Beastie Boys were the epitomy of adolescent distrust of authority figures. Their first massive hit, “Fight for Your Right”, is the story of antagonism between youth and parents and teachers. The final verse is:

“Don't step out of this house if that's the clothes you're gonna wear”
“I'll kick you out of this house if you don't cut that hair”
Your mom busted in and said “What's that noise?”
Aw, mom, you're just jealous, it's the Beastie Boys!

You gotta fight for your right to party
You gotta fight for your right to party.[49]

In this rap, the Beastie Boys articulate the frustration felt by youth living at home. They mimic the voices of parents, and describe acts of rebellion ¾ having long hair, wearing the clothes you want to, and, climactically, listening to the Beastie Boys. The second person voice of the song increases the sense of directness and connection between the Beastie Boys and the listening youth. The rebellious tone of the lyrics is enhanced by its sound, which features a hard rock guitar riff, a whiny lead guitar solo, noisy drums and the shouting of the Beastie Boys. The simple verse-chorus structure lends itself to people singing along ¾ as one critic has written, the rap “became an anthem for pseudo-rebellious youth everywhere.”[50] The “pseudo” in this quote is insightful ¾ there is no advocation of active rebellion in the song other than the vague “fight for your right to party.” Further, the act of listening to a rap fantasy could be seen to provide vicarious, and hence safe, rebellion. Whatever the audience reactions, however, the “attitude” of the rap is clearly one which sides with youth against authoritarian control.

The anti-authoritarian stance continues in later albums. “Shake Your Rump” features a confrontation between Mike D and a host of authority figures:

Running from the law the press and the parents
*Is your name Michael Diamond?*
No mine’s Clarence[51]

These lyrics are best understood when heard rather than read. The second line is a sample, spoken by an older male, in a disapproving tone. The final line, where Mike D lies about his name, is rapped using a smarmy, nasal voice. The impression conveyed is that a smart attitude will triumph over authority.

Claims of rebellion in general are bolstered by accounts in raps of experiences which are generally condemned by society. The Beastie Boys rap frequently about drinking alcohol. Rapping about the cocktail called Brass Monkey, they state:

Cause I drink it anytime – and any place
When it’s time to get ill – I pour it on my face[52]

Over the course of Licensed to Ill the Beastie Boys drink ale, Thunderbird wine, Moet, Chivas, Martinis and more. On Paul's Boutique, they rap about being “drunk as a skunk”[53] and “sucking down pints till I' didn't know”[54]. The drug-taking of the Beastie Boys centres around marijuana (cheeba) and PCP (dust). As they rap in”3 Minute Rule”:

I smoke cheeba it helps me with my brain
I might be a little dusted but I’m not insane.[55]

These lyrics, then, describe rebellious acts. Other lyrics resist social pressure to be good citizens by embodying plain silliness: “Mullet Head”[56] is a sarcastic tribute to an outmoded hairstyle, and in the middle of “Get It Together” Ad-Rock raps “Yes, you know I’m getting silly/Got a Grandma Hazel and a Grandma Tilly.”[57] The use of obscenities, too, distances the Beastie Boys from mainstream values: “cause I got nothing to lose/cause I don’t give a fuck.”[58]

The “attitude” of the Beastie Boys, then, is an adolescent rejection of societal control. This is manifested in direct challenges to authority figures in raps, and more indirectly through the description of forbidden experiences, their rejection of mainstream values and their adoption of a “smartass” (cheeky and provocative) tone.

This cheeky tone is supported by the technique of the Beastie Boys; in particular, their use of double and triple rhymes adds to the wit and humour of raps. A double rhyme occurs when words or phrases of two syllables are phonologically matched ¾ a triple rhyme matches three syllable words. In the case of mosaic rhymes, phrases can be matched with words.[59] As Brogan has stated, in the case of triple rhyme “[t]he effect in English since Byron has almost always been comic.”[60] Byron’s triple rhymes included “intellectual/hen-pecked you all.[61] The Beasties Boys use triple rhymes such as shrubbery/rubbery,[62] cellular/hell you were[63], and more of this/Horovitz.[64] Double rhymes can be similarly humorous” for example, snifter/shoplifter[65] and leaner/cleaner/Gardena.[66] This use of humour in rhyme fits well with the adolescent playfulness of the Beastie Boys’ “attitude”.

Finally, the visual images of the Beastie Boys enhance their “attitude.” In many cases, the images of the group have a spoof element: their poses include old men (the cover of their anthology, Sounds of Science), astronauts and construction workers (on the video of “Intergalactic”) and 1970s cops (the video of “Sabotage”). In other images, they adopt humorous facial expressions or are seen through a distorted lens.

There are members of the rap subculture, however, who draw a distinction between the “attitude” of the Beastie Boys and more “authentic” rappers who concentrate on political issues. While almost all raps have an “attitude” of rebellion, this view of “authenticity” requires a further political (and often racial) edge which transforms a general anti-authoritarian stance into a more threatening, proactive and confrontationalist “attitude.”

One of the groups with the most visible political “attitude” is Public Enemy. Their concerts feature the group S1W — Security of the First World — which uses military-style routines to emphasise the serious political edge to the rap group. Their didactic role is frankly admitted: Sister Souljah (pronounced soldier), part of the S1W team, goes by the name “Sister of Instruction, Director of Attitude.” The album cover of Apocalypse 91, The Empire Strikes Black features the slogan “Justice evolves only after injustice has been defeated.” Images of the band use poses which suggest aggression and power.

This overt political “attitude” is also present in Public Enemy’s lyrics. For example, “By the Time I get to Arizona” is a fantasy about the band’s violent reaction to the decision by the state of Arizona not to commemorate Martin Luther King with a holiday. The rap’s introduction by Sister Souljah explains the context and wishes the “black brothers” luck as they “travel west to head off White Supremacists.” The rap features Chuck D threatening to drive to Arizona and use violence to protest the decision: he's “on the one mission/To get a politician/To honor or he's a goner”. The sound of the rap is aggressive, with a slow, relentless beat which matches Chuck D's even monotonic rap. In the middle of the rap, the musical accompaniment introduces sounds which mimic the screaming of women. Towards the end, the rap is backed by soulful women singing in harmony — perhaps suggesting a link between Public Enemy's struggle against white injustices and the history of racial inequalities. The threatening quality of this song made it extremely controversial when it was released.

There is an argument that political “attitudes” such as the one presented by Public Enemy are more “authentic” than the more playful “attitude” of the Beastie Boys. A Rolling Stone review of Licensed to Ill makes this point in its comparison of the Beastie Boys and the black group, Run-D.M.C.:

where Run and D.M.C. declaim with the fury of the righteous, Mike D, MCA and Ad-Rock (“King Whine”) sneer and hoot like privileged hooligans.[67]

This argument relies on the concept that in order to be perceived to faithfully represent the community rappers must engage with the social, economic and political injustices suffered by that community. Decker sees this happening in the work of some rappers:

Unlike most entertainers and politicians in the United States, many nation-conscious rappers sustain their organic ties to the black community from which they came and of which their music is a part.[68]

Decker assumes that the “nation-conscious” aspects of the raps he describes are manifestations of the “organic ties” between the rapper and the community (which he also assumes to exist literally). Exponents of this argument often refer to rap’s origins as a site for the expression of sidelined political views. The video Rap, Race, and Equality quotes an early unknown author making strong statements against racial inequality:

These government officials corrupting
They make it hard, but let me tell you somethin'
That I'll be glad when we see equality.
The time will come for you and me to be free,
But in the meanwhile, lift your head and be proud.
Cause I'm black man, and I'll say it loud. [69]

The flaw in this view of political rappers is that it ignores the way that politics, just like adolescent cheekiness, is a constructed “attitude.” Ross writes of performers whose:

career genre conventions (“rebel rock” genres) oblige them to make statements on a regular basis about social and economic justice. Such statements have more to do with semicontractual agreements with audiences about, say, “keeping the faith”, than they actually relate to those social and economic conditions responsible for the conventions of “selling out”.[70]

This analysis is pertinent to the use of politics in raps. Politics can be seen as a gimmick, a way of creating a saleable fantasy. “By the Time I Get to Arizona,” as discussed above, is an example of the scandal and media hype which can be generated by raps containing racially political statements. This publicity can be seen as the reason for a rapper adopting a political stance. Rubin describes the way Public Enemy moved from more general raps to political raps as an “angle.” He speaks of Public Enemy’s early days:

There wasn’t any politics in the music at the time. [Chuck D] was just doing some real good, real funny raps, about driving around in his [Olds] 98…I think the politics became very much of an angle. They were looking for something to make them different from the other rap groups.”[71]

This development in the work of Public Enemy can be seen to cast doubt on the idea that political raps arise from genuine concern for the rapper’s community. Samuels describes Public Enemy as creating “a highly charged theater of race,”[72] and Bayles writes that “There is no revolution, but it is being televised. Public Enemy wouldn’t have it any other way.”[73]

Similarly, the aggressive statements of ganster rappers about the political issues of life in the ghettoes can be seen, in many cases, to be an adopted pose. Benjamin writes of rapper Ice Cube:

Cube is engaging in myth-making of a grossly self-aggrandizing sort. He is neither a boy from the hood like Ice T, nor a militant activist organiser like Malcolm X. Cube is a poseur, a B-Boy wannabe son of the black middle-class masquerading as a street tough.[74]

The aggressive political angle of many raps has been described usefully by Ross, in the context of analysing a Public Enemy rap, as a “hit-and-run aesthetic”[75] and the “presentation of an “attitude.””[76] Thus it can be seen that the idea that political raps are actually authentic is a flawed one. However, the conventions of “authenticity” may still dictate the presence of political statements in rap, leading to the possibility that the apolitical adolescent “attitude” of the Beastie Boys is, to some degree, “inauthentic”.

Conclusion

This chapter has examined the conventions which govern the fantasy element of rap lyrics. In particular, I have teased out three aspects of the rap fantasy. Technical skill was seen to be a central element of the rapper’s persona, and the Beastie Boys have made many claims and displays of their ability. Sexual dominance was the second key element. This is manifested in claims of sexual attractiveness, which can often lead to homophobia and misogyny. The Beastie Boys participated in these conventions (at least to an extent) in their early years, but have more recently taken a more pro-women and pro-homosexual stance. Their new, soft image, is thus potentially not “authentic” because it deviates from the hardcore rap norms. Third, we considered the “attitude” of the Beastie Boys ¾ anti-authoritarian, adolescent and witty. This was contrasted with the more racially-charged political “attitude” of rappers such as Public Enemy. These political rappers can be seen as more connected to the rap community, and hence more “authentic.”

The convention that raps should be political privileges the importance of “race” in establishing a rapper’s “authenticity.” The thorny relationship between “race”, rap and “authenticity” is the focus of the following chapter.

[2] Jonathon Gold, “The Day of Dre”, Rolling Stone 666, September 30, 1993 at 38 cited in Bayles at 356.

[3] “High Plains Drifter,” Paul’s Boutique

[8] Introduction to Leaves of grass, Loving at x.

[12] Licensed to Ill. Lyrics reproduced in Appendix 2.

[13] http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~enwr1016/osc2x/hiphop.html accessed 24/03/00 at 10:11am citing Shusterman, Richard. “The Fine Art of Rap.” New Literary History

22 (1991) : 614-5

[24] “Finger Lickin Good”, Check Your Head.

[25] Note that some of the rhymes are inexact.

[29] “Dropping Names”, Paul's Boutique. “tippy” means penis, “my homie” in this context means myself.

[33] “Do You Know what time it is?”, by Kool Moe Dee (self titled album)

[37] Charles Mundy at 58. Bayles somewhere too.

[39] Rolling Stone Review of “Licensed to Ill”, online……

[44] Jenny Eliscu, “Woodstock Organizers Answer Ad-Rock” (September 14, 1999), Rolling Stone Online http://rollingstone.tunes.com/sections/news/text/newsarticle.asp?afl=rsn&NewsID=9157&LookUpString=16. Accessed when??

[48] Tricia Rose, “An Interview with Carmen Ashurst Watson”, in Microphone Fiends at 71.

[49] “Fight For Your Right”, Licensed to Ill.

[51] “Shake Your Rump”, Paul’s Boutique.

[53] “Sounds of Science”, Paul's Boutique

[57] “Get It Together”, Ill Communication.

[59] “Mosaic Rhyme”, New Princeton at 802

[63] “High Plains Drifter”, Pauls’ Boutique

[65] “High Plains Drifter”, Paul’s Boutique

[67] CDNOW website, http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=351947284/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/artistid=BEASTIE+BOYS/itemid=316907 3 June 2000, 11.27pm

[69] http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~enwr1016/osc2x/hiphop.html accessed 24/03/00 at 10:11am

[70] Ross, Introduction to Ross and Rose, at 3.

[71] Interview by Robert Hilburn, “Rap – The Power and the Controversy”, Los Angeles Times, Feb 4 1990, Calendar Section, p79, cited in Bayles at 359.

[72] David Samuels, “The rap on rap” in New Rpublic Nov. 11, 1991, pp24 –29 cited in Bayles at 359.

[74] Playthell Benjamin, “Reckless rhetoric of a fairy-tale gangsta”, The Guardian, 11 March 1993, cited in Longhurst at 154.